TISSUE CULTURE STUDIES IN NEPENTHES KHASIANA

Abstract:Nepenthes khasiana is an endangered flowering plant of India having enormous medicinal properties.
Its conservation is imperative nowadays because it is on the verge of extinction.
Multiplication of this ecologically and economically important wild plant through seeds and cuttings (macro propagation) is difficult.
Hence, attempts have been made to study the regeneration of Nepenthes khasiana through in vitro micro propagation.
In the first experiment, basal medium WPM (woody plant medium) + 2% sucrose + 500 mg activated charcoal) along with different combinations and concentrations of auxins (NAA - 0.05, 0.1, 0.3 mg.L-1, IAA - 0.05, 0.1, 0.3 mg.
L-1) and cytokinins (BAP - 1.0 mg.L-1 and KN - 0.1, 0.3 mg.L-1) gave superior results for proliferation of nodal stem and nodal shoot tip explants.
Ninety percent of the multi node and 40% of the single node responded and survived when treated with different combinations of auxins and cytokinins.
In basal medium alone less than 15% of the single node and 25% of the multi node responded and survived.
Days taken to shoot initiation were noted to be 70 in case of different combinations in the nodal stem as explant, whereas it was 56 days in nodal shoot tip when used as explant.
In the second experiment, days to root initiation was recorded 21 days in the isolated shoot with average number of 2-4 roots per shoot with combination of basal medium and different concentration of NAA (0.05, 0.01, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 mg.L-1). Survival of the explants was observed to be 90%. The explants treated with growth regulators gave better results than basal medium alone.